The Chinese government has admitted for the first time that so called ‘cancer villages’ exist, as decades of pollution take their toll on the health of Chinese citizens.

For years environmental campaigners in China have said that
cancer rates in villages near factories and polluted rivers are far
higher than they should be.

Now China’s Environment Ministry has admitted their existence
and has called for greater transparency on environmental
issues.

“In recent years, toxic and hazardous chemical pollution has
caused many environmental disasters, cutting off drinking water
supplies, and even leading to severe health and social problems
such as ‘cancer villages’,” the document says, which was
published in the 12th five-year plan for tackling pollution.

The plan also outlines a clampdown on the use of 58 types of
toxic chemicals. Many chemicals are produced and consumed in China,
which are banned in many developed nations.

The document continues to warn that China is facing a grave
situation in terms of chemical pollution control, including a lack
of pollution risk control by enterprises, a lack of policies to
stop the use of highly toxic and dangerous chemicals and
insufficient pollution monitoring by the authorities, the state
news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

"It's our hope that this announcement is quickly implemented
and enforced - about half of China's rivers are not suitable for
domestic use, and around 20% are deemed useless even for industrial
purposes. We simply cannot wait any longer,” said Greenpeace
Toxic Campaigner Yixiu Wu.

According to a long-term study completed in 2011 by the Chinese
Ministry of Environment Protection and the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, over 90% of the groundwater in cities was polluted to
different degrees. Of 118 major cities, 64 had seriously
contaminated groundwater supplies. This is highly alarming, as 70%
of China’s population relies on groundwater for their drinking
water.

According to Greenpeace East Asia, 320 million people are
without access to clean drinking water in China and 190 million
people are drinking water severely contaminated with hazardous
chemicals.

A national environmental safety survey, carried out between
2005-2006, showed that out of the 7,555 chemical and petrochemical
projects surveyed, 1,354 were located on the banks and shores of
rivers, lakes and reservoirs; 2,489 were next to densely populated
cities or areas; 535 were on major tributaries of key rivers; and
280 were on the upper reaches of protected drinking water-source
regions.

“Poor environmental regulations, weak enforcement and local
corruption mean that factories can discharge their waste water
directly into rivers and lakes”, according to Greenpeace East
Asia.

It is mainly water pollution, which is the cause of the high
rates of cancer in areas where factories discharge chemicals into
rivers, which have earned these settlements their name of ‘cancer
villages’.

Cancer is now China’s biggest killer, with an 80% rise in
mortality from the disease in the last 30 years, according to data
from the Chinese Ministry for Health.

One of China’s leading environmentalists, Ma Jun, said that
admitting there is a problem is major step in the right
direction.

“The recognition of the existence of problems is the very
first step and the precondition for us to really start solving
these problems. Before there was always a tendency to play down or
even cover up the issues. If that continues then all these problems
with air, water, soil and groundwater pollution and their health
impact could drag on for a long, long time,” Jun told the Daily
Telegraph.

In 2009 an investigative journalist Deng Fei plotted some of the
worst hit villages on a Google map, and has launched an online
campaign inviting people to post photographs of polluted rivers
near their homes.

“If things continue like this, we will all be doomed. If the
issue [of ground water pollution] is not properly solved, not only
will it kill people but it will also drag down the entire
healthcare system because of the number of cancer patients it
causes,” he said.

As well as water pollution, air pollution is also a major
problem in China. Lung cancer rates continue to mushroom, because
of air pollution as well as the number of people who smoke.

The main cause of Chinese air pollution is coal and particular
its use in generating electricity. Coal supplies 80% of the
country's electricity and 70% of its energy – as well as the lion's
share of its air pollutants, according to figures published by
Greenpeace East Asia.

Since January Beijing and other major cities have been blanketed
in a toxic smog, which has soared past levels considered dangerous
by the World Health Organization.

The smog sparked public outcry and has led to public debate
about the cost of China’s rush for economic development at
seemingly any price.